Monday, July 22, 2013

It's Being So Cheerful As Keeps Me Going

I have recently been following Fleet Street Fox, the Mirror's columnist, and this article struck a chord. The great British Public are woefully ignorant about so much of the life of the nation, to a large extent because of wilful misinformation in sections of the Press. Indignation seems to sell newspapers, and the habit of, for example, prefacing every mention of a prison sentence with the word 'just' implants the idea that courts set out to avoid punishing anyone. Every magistrate will have been cornered by the bore who wants to see more and longer prison sentences, usually dropping in the 'fact' that you only get community service for mugging an old lady. I started this blog in 2005 to try to shed a little light into the dusty corners of the summary justice system, but it's proving a hard slog. So things aren't all that bad, crime is dropping on most credible measures (blowed if I know why, but there we are) so lets enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.

21 comments:

  1. Sensation sells.

    Many years ago there was a 'good news' newspaper in America that failed due to lack of interest.

    As far as crime dropping, when I went to the local cop shop to report a stolen bus pass, it took 10 minutes of badgering before they would record it. All I wanted was a crime number to get another pass. It seems the police are reluctant to record certain crimes, so helping the drop in crime stats.

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    Replies
    1. Stolen - really. How do you know you didn't just lose it?

      The lure of a free replcement for a 'stolen' bus pass sometimes makes otherwise honest people tell fibs to get a crime number you know!

      Delete
    2. You managed to get to the desk and actually get someone to speak to you. Well done!

      Delete
  2. Imagine two crimes in the category of "theft of unattended property" take place. (1) Some travellers take a JCB from a building site, use it to rip a cash machine out of the wall of a bank, and in a secluded country lane use the JCB to break the machine open and make off with all the cash. (2) A woman goes to work in an office and leaves her handbag on her desk. While she is briefly absent from her desk someone nicks a fiver from her handbag.

    The police leap into action. A crime prevention officer visits the woman and advises her to lock her handbag in a desk drawer before going to the loo.

    Voila! Crime has now been reduced by fifty percent.

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    Replies
    1. The police don't always leap into action. Sometimes they beg off:
      ---
      Cut to a policeman standing in a street. A man comes up to him.

      MAN Inspector, inspector.

      INSPECTOR Uh huh.

      MAN I'm terribly sorry but I was sitting on a park bench over there, took my coat off for a minute and then I found my wallet had been stolen and £15 taken from it.

      INSPECTOR Well did you er, did you see anyone take it, anyone hanging around or...

      MAN No no, there was no one there at all. That's the trouble.

      INSPECTOR Well there's not very much we can do about that, sir.
      ---
      A lesson in policing from you-know-who.

      Delete
  3. While crime of the sort that concerns the courts defies all predictions and continues to fall, crimes against the English language continue to proliferate on Bystander's blog (let's not speculate why an Oxford English graduate should struggle so with his apostrophes!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blimey - and I thought I was pedantic!
      Mind you - English is tricky, isn't it? Do you mean that BA was awarded a degree in English at Oxford, or an English person who went up to Oxford, or a native of Oxford who is English or graduated in that discipline?
      Why Oxford, by the way? Given the unknown nature of his or her identity, I could assert with equal confidence that BS graduated at Nottingham.
      As for the reported decrease in crime, all I can say is that I am aware of many cases of relatively serious criminal behaviour that is not charged and horrifies many of us.

      Delete
    2. I have never laid claim to a degree from Oxford, because my degree (in English) followed three enjoyable years at, funnily enough, Nottingham.

      Delete
    3. Inspired guess, or not, as the case may be! I did, however, assert it with a degree of confidence.

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    4. Was Nottingham even a university back then?!
      Kate Caveat

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  4. Sigh...............

    There's always one, isn't there?

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    Replies
    1. A six letter word beginning with w springs to mind.

      Delete
    2. "Wotcha", doc.?

      Delete
    3. Italian lawyer23 July 2013 at 19:14

      Yes, there's always some who apparently spend their time counting apostrophes. Must be a sort of pastime, like trainspotting, or something.Weird.

      Delete
  5. I rarely read the papers, I prefer to read blogs on whatever subject interests me. I find them to be a lot more accurate.
    John Gibson

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  6. Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to why SOCA decided to do nothing about the 102 top firms who hired PIs to illegally obtain private information. That's why crime has gone down, because it is being suppressed or ignored. Now why won't those responsible be prosecuted???
    You would think, that those in the legal profession would do something about it, as they are best placed to do so (when others won't). Which reminds me, of what use is the current Director of Public Prosecutions??? And how can anyone accept his low rate of prosecutions? He needs to be fired.

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    Replies
    1. He's retiring in the next few months to be replaced by Alison Saunders, currently Chief Crown Prosecutor for London

      Delete
  7. If you look at the UK prison population 1950 - 2013 then it has increased from less than 20k to around 90k and the UK population increased from 50m to 62m over roughly the same period..
    Either Bystander and his colleagues are locking up more for less and longer, or crime reporting has changed.

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    Replies
    1. In fact the biggest boost to the prison population came not from the activity of magistrates - even though they deal with the vast majority of offences - but from the Labour Government introducing the indeterminate sentence ( which means that you stay in prison until you demonstrate that you are no longer a danger to the public( but failed to follow through by providing the necessary funds to allow prisoners to take part in schemes that would allow them to show that they had been rehabilitated, and so having to stay way beyond their 'determinate sentence' release date.

      Delete
  8. If those concerned examined the crime figures forensically, and checked on which crimes have been reclassified, which are grouped together as single crimes, who is included in the "reporting" of crimes, which crimes are no longer "reported" etc, they would see a more accurate picture of the level of offending in the past twenty years. And what of internet crimes? Where and how is that recorded do you think?

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  9. It's the lead: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline

    The details are not quite the same for the UK, but, the case against lead seems rather persuasive.

    JMH

    ReplyDelete

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